All posts tagged problem

How To Fix “Bluetooth Not Available” problem in Mac OSX

By on April 27, 2011 in Apple, Bluetooth, Diagnostics, Hardware, Mac, OSX, Troubleshooting, Tutorials & Explanations with 1 Comment

Ok, this will be short and sweet…

Today I booted up my iMac and my wireless Magic Trackpad was dead.  I had just replaced the batteries a couple days ago, and I could see the green light was on.  But nothing…

I had this happen once before, where the Bluetooth got snarked.  Like a true died-in-the-wool Geek, I grabbed my iPad and used LogMeIn Ingition to remotely access my iMac and control the mouse pointer like an over-sized trackpad, and toggled Bluetooth on and off.  It was being all wonky and not wanting to go off (took several attempts) then didn’t want to go back on…  So I did a restart on the whole OS.

When it came back, the Bluetooth logo on the menu bar had a squiggly line through it:  Bluetooth not available.

What?!

Ok, so here’s the solution:

Turn off the computer.  Turn it back on.

Yeah.  Duh.  Took me 30 wasted, frustrating minutes to figure that out…  The red-herring was that I *DID* do a restart.  But the problem was hardware, not software.  Power cycle.  Fixed.  *rolling eyes*

I’ve spent 20 years or so on DOS/Windows-centric PCs before Macs for the past couple years…  this is a typical computer hardware thing.  Sometimes things get inexplicably hosed up and a simple power cycle will “reset” it.  I was shaking my head at myself for not trying this sooner.

Hopefully this will help save someone some time and frustration in the future.  You’re welcome. :-)

The Truth About iPhone 4 Reception Issues

By on July 7, 2010 in Apple, iOS, iPhone, News, Opinion, Phones, Tutorials & Explanations with No Comments

OK, there’s been so much hype, hyperbole and misinformation about the iPhone 4 antenna issue that, after the umpteenth time I was asked about it, I thought it was time for a blog post!

95% of what’s floating around the airwaves right now is dis-information.   Here are the facts:

1. It’s true that if you hold the iPhone 4 a certain way, you can hamper reception.

However, that’s true with ANY and ALL cell phones!  I find it truly hilarious that the Android camp is jumping all over this to “prove” (in their minds, anyway) that their devices are better than iPhone.

I hate to break it to you, but there are zillions of online articles, postings and YouTube videos like this one about the Google Nexus One phone that suffers a loss of reception if you hold your hand over the bottom.  Others (the HTC android phone, the DROID, etc.) lose signal if you hold it a certain way, or place it flat on a surface (which, incidentally, is how I use my phone 90% of the time — I put it on my desk and use the headset to talk hands-free while I type on my computer). C’mon and think about it people — there are mini antennae in the phones. OF COURSE you’ll degrade signal if you cover them!  In the case of the iPhone we’re talking about a fairly specific “death grip” that isn’t consistent with the way the majority of users hold the phone, and in fact there are solutions to this “problem” anyway.  Read on.

Read more…

Compress ( aka Zip ) Problems in Mac OSX Leopard

By on May 18, 2010 in iPad, iPhone, iPhone SDK, Mac, programming, Tutorials & Explanations with No Comments

Here’s a curious issue!

I was having issues with entitlement / code signing on an iPhone app.  I was positive everything was correct, yet the beta tester I was emailing it to could not install it.  I was ripping my hair out.  (And boy, did I look funny!)

I’ll cut to the chase.   The beta tester’s iTunes kept reporting that his entitlements are not valid.  In plain english: his device did not have permission to install the app.  If you checked out my previous blog about short cuts to checking entitlements, you’ll forsee where I eventually ended up.  We went to check the code signing and entitlement files/folders within the .app package, and low and behold they were gone!!   Hmmm.

Well, to again compress the story and jump to the end, it turned out that the file he had was NOT the same file I had sent!   When right-clicking on the sample.app file and selecting “Compress”, we ended up with a SAMPLE.ZIP file that, when unzipped, had files missing!

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